America's Cup 2003 - the right time for Britain?

With rumours continuing to circulate about a British America's Cup challenge, Mark Chisnell takes a look at the arguments for and against

Let's start by saying that at some stage, Britain must get back into the America's Cup game. It's still the most recognised sailing contest in the world, one of the big three events that sailors consider essential to their CVs - the Olympics and the Volvo (nee Whitbread Race) being the others - and the one that has seen a minimal British participation since 1987, our last full challenge.

It's difficult to create a long-lived and well-paying sailing career out of the Olympic classes alone, and British medallists need something substantial to move onto next. The America's Cup is an obvious goal, the question is whether or not the 2003 event is the right one for the first British challenge in over a decade. It's likely that the handful of medals won by British sailors in Sydney will significantly raise the profile of the sport in this country. It's also probable that this raised profile can be traded for more sponsorship - but is a 2003 America's Cup challenge the right thing to spend that money on?

Any challenge launched at this stage will be playing catch-up to the big four - Prada, Gilmour's Seattle syndicate, Dickson and his Oracle Racing, and Coutts' Swiss operation - not to mention a Team New Zealand defence that will probably suffer little for the loss of an older generation, and Dennis Conner's New York Yacht Club bid. All with more money than Britain is ever likely to raise, more experience and more time - the point is that Britain can't hope to win in 2003, and any challenge must go forward under that premise. But to win it (eventually), you have to be in it, and British sailing has to start regaining Cup experience. If the PR is handled right, a cheap, one-boat, toe-in-the-water challenge can still come out smelling of roses - look at Dawn Riley's America True and the French Le Defi campaigns in 2000. A semi-final place was considered as good as a win.

But looking at the New Zealand Olympic sailing results - two Bronze medals in the windsurfing - it's evident that even the world's most successful sailing nation can't win Olympic Gold at the same time as the America's Cup. There is a smaller pool of experienced, top talent in this country - and it would be easy to stretch it too far. By trying to put together a 2003 America's Cup challenge, we could easily cut off the supply of success that provided the momentum and funding in the first place. Shirley Robertson has already gone on record with her concerns - the timing of the 2003 America's Cup would make it difficult for those involved to do a full Olympic campaign.

The 2003 America's Cup also clashes with the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race. And many of our top big boat sailors - the people that would be needed to help British Olympic talent adjust to the America's Cup environment - have already signed up with Volvo programmes. We've reported recently on Jason Carrington, Neal McDonald and Jez Fanstone's new jobs, and there are several others that have joined a boat that's yet to be made public.

There is another way forward - let 2003 go by and start preparing the ground for a subsequent British bid. Those that can - Ian Walker, Andy Beadsworth and Adrian Stead spring to mind, Andy Hemmings and Ian Howlett have already joined Prada - could get experience in the event at someone else's expense. The top teams have a lot of experience of marrying the competing demands of design and sailing squads, PR and marketing, with the daily logistics of keeping 80 or a 100 people fed, clothed and accommodated - and the inevitable politics and rules shenanigans. Learning from that experience will be an invaluable asset to any future British America's Cup challenge.

Without the distraction of a 2003 challenge, the slightly younger generation of British sailors could then stay in the Olympic classes, but mix it up with a little more big boat sailing - the Admiral's Cup is an obvious place to get a taste of this type of racing - and some time on the international match race circuit. It wouldn't surprise me to find that we had both another Admiral's Cup win and a match racing world champion in two or three years time. That there are now some British owned IACC-boats is a bonus, and if the owners were willing, they would provide an excellent vehicle for some relevant time on the water over the next couple of years.

This route means that we would miss the direct experience gained by having a British team in Auckland in 2003. But we'd also avoid the serious drain on resources from other areas of racing that such a bid would make. While having an opportunity to prepare a team for the next time, and emphasise the potential to the British public and industry with other successes to the credit of British sailing.

It's not an easy decision, and I'm sure that all these concerns are being balanced by the RYA against the desire to get on and do it. Certainly, the RYA are the only people to make the final decision about the benefits and downsides of a 2003 challenge. And their credentials as a sports management team need no further underlining than the stack of Youth and Olympic medals that they now have to their credit.

It's reassuring to look at Peter Harrison's recent statement, following the Sunday Times revelation of his involvement in discussions about a possible bid: 'Further to recent speculation in the media, Peter Harrison would like to make clear that no agreement concerning his personal involvement in a Great British America’s Cup campaign has been made. Whilst Mr Harrison has made no secret of his desire for British sailors to have the opportunity to capitalise on their recent Olympic success, no decisions have been made as the best method to achieve this.'

It's an acknowledgement that there are other ways forward for British sailing, from this current high-point. And given Harrison and Chernikeeff's closeness to the RYA - much of their sponsorship in sailing has been channelled into RYA managed events, not to mention his generous donation to RYA Sailability - I think we can be hopeful that Peter Harrison is talking to the right people about the way forward.